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Live From New York: Caetano Veloso, James Carter, Hamza Akram, Eyal Vilner and David Grollman
Caetano Veloso Brooklyn Academy Of Music April 12, 2019 Always essential for the local Brazilian community, but also far beyond, into the general music enthusiast zone, singer and songwriter Caetano Veloso made one of his occasional visits to NYC, presenting the Ofertório show. Essentially, this involved his three musical sons, in an intimate almost-acoustic setting (just very subtle Fender Rhodes and a low-presence electric bass), simply savouring father's fine songs, from the last five ...
read moreFor Now: The Turning
For Now is a young Texas-based quintet—vocals, guitar, piano, bass, drums—led by singer and composer Isabel Crespo. The Turning is the band's second album, following 2018's self-produced Elsewhere and the first with new members Ben McDonald and Matt Young. As with the band's debut release, the sound is expanded by the addition of guest players, but this time instead of adding backing vocalists, For Now brings in more instrumentalists with a particular focus on wind instruments, which adds tonal variation ...
read morePeter Lewis And Peter Perrett: Sleeper LP's of 2019
Peter Lewis and Peter Perrett are both survivors of the contemporary rock milieu, the former of Sixties band Moby Grape, the latter of the Other Ones, whose first brush with fame occurred approximately a decade later. Each man has now released a record under his own name, proof positive of the call(s) of their respective muses, but also of the creative impulse in general. And while both artists hew fairly closely to the style for which they are best known—Lewis ...
read moreMats Eilertsen: Reveries and Revelations
In rock music, the heyday of “and friends" albums (Leon Russell or Eric Clapton releases for examples) seems long past; on such records, the headliner was joined by a famous star names on different tracks, their presence helping to attract publicity and boost sales. The last hooray of the genre probably came with charity recordings such as Band Aid's “Do They Know It's Christmas," “We Are the World" and their ilk. However, away from rock music, Reveries and Revelations suggests ...
read moreA&R Pioneers: Architects of American Roots Music on Record by Brian Ward & Patrick Huber
A&R Pioneers: Architects of American Roots Music on Record Brian Ward & Patrick Huber 480 pages ISBN: # 978-0826521750 Country Music Foundation Press 2018 Scholarship in the history or blues music (and all music, for that matter) reaches a pinnacle with the publication of the exhaustively researched A&R Pioneers: Architects of American Roots Music on Record, written and edited by Brian Ward and Patrick Huber. In the past 60 years, there has been ...
read moreWilliam Parker/In Order to Survive: Live/Shapeshifter
Another stellar effort from the genius known as William Parker, Live/Shapeshifter uses the immense talents of his “In Order To Survive" group -which consists of long time collaborators Cooper-Moore on piano, Hamid Drake on drums, and Rob Brown on alto sax--to craft a statement of free-wheeling dynamism at play. One of the top composers and bass players to ever take up the art form known as jazz, Parker offers up a double album's worth of material, all of it recorded ...
read moreJonathan Greenstein: Vol 3
Some of the freshest jazz to be found sometimes orbits outside typical trajectories. That is the case here with Greenstein, whose Vol 3 EP wasn't released on a major label but compares quite favorably to higher profile albums from more recognized sources. Greenstein, on saxophone and keyboards, is a relatively new voice, setting a course well worth following over approximately sixteen minutes of solid composition and musicianship. He doesn't need to pound listeners over the head with his ...
read moreMonty Alexander: Still Rolling
If there's one defining quality to Monty Alexander's music, it's joy. An unmistakable undercurrent of happiness has been constant across several decades, dozens of recordings and countless performances all over the world. He could be honoring classic jazz balladeers, exploring the danceable “riddims" of his native Jamaica or anything in between, and you can always hear the spirit of celebration in there somewhere. Alexander turns out to be just as delightful and effusive in conversation as he is ...
read moreOcean Fanfare: First Nature
It can be difficult to keep up with trumpeter Tomasz Dabrowski. His incessant musical explorations have kept him in the forefront of European jazz since 2012, when he debuted his Tom Trio (ILK Music), the first of several different projects he has formed. Most recently he released Ninjazz (For Tune, 2018), a well-conceived outing featuring three like-minded Japanese musicians, which was both inventive and accessible. Here he returns to a group he started in 2013, Ocean Fanfare, which released Imagine ...
read moreNorth Sea Jazz Festival 2019
North Sea Jazz Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands July 12-14, 2019 For a while now, jazz festivals have lost their exclusivity and being a musical source for just jazz fans or those who wanted to get involved in the scene. More commercial artists from other musical genres have actually become a source of sustainability for jazz festivals and in many respects for jazz artists themselves.Even while it was still located in jny: The ...
read moreGrover Washington Jr.: Sacred Kind of Love: The Columbia Recordings
When saxophonist and composer Grover Washington Jr. (1943-1999) arrived at Columbia in 1986, he was already a fully formed artist. He had released a string of strong albums and had even landed a regular smash-hit with “Just the Two Us," his collaboration with singer Bill Withers. In other words, Washington had nothing to prove and could just concentrate on playing great music. And so he did. The proof is in a five-disc set from SoulMusic Records, Sacred Kind of Love: ...
read moreBlue Note 50ths, American Pianists Association Winners & More
A light schedule of Blue Note 50th anniversaries this month: Hank Mobley's The Flip. But we missed a Thad Jones, Mel Lewis Orchestra recording (originally on Solid State but reissued on Blue Note) last month due to an error in our working discography. So, we feature album that as well. To celebrate Blue Note's 80th anniversary, we feature BN-11 from the Pete Johnson Blues Trio. The American Pianists Association held their jazz competition this spring, and we have ...
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